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Posted by David Williams on December 23, 2006, 10:45 pm
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-> This is, unfortunately, a rather demanding standard. A 20cm cube with a
-> lot of its surface covered in solar cells (very good absorbers) feels a
-> solar light-pressure force of roughly 0.2 micronewtons. As others have
-> noted, just devising thrusters that will supply precisely-controlled
-> forces of that size is a non-trivial problem.
If sunlight can push that hard, then the reaction from a lamp on the
spacecraft shining light out into space should produce a similar force.
The lamp can't be solar powered, of course.
dow
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